Interesting article in bloomberg.com this morning about the wine business in Napa: â€¢Vineyard Defaults Surge as Lost California Land Values Undermine Napa Wine".

Must confess to a touch of Schadenfreud at that. The writer says that consumers are trading down, going for lower-priced juice from other areas, leaving highly-leveraged Napa growers in the lurch; nothing is said about the impact on the European trade, but it may well be that some of them are also mortgaged to the hilt.

I don't buy high-end Napa juice, so I don't really care. But I'm seeing a leveling-off in the recent trend of price escalation for European wines, and I'm grateful for that.

I agree with you on the european price on the east coast of late. I get daily offers on emails that look extremely inviting. Unfortunately I live now in London where things have also lightened up (50 GBP for a bottle of my fav white, B du Martry Corton Charmagne)